In the health care field, significant physical labor is used to reposition patients in their beds. Traditional methods have required patient caregivers to lift, pull, or even drag a patient into a new desired position in a bed. Because of this physical contact there may be injury to the patient, as well as occupational injury, such as back pain, to the patient caregivers. Other methods have included the use of stretchers, pulleys, and moveable sheets. Each of these methods, however, is inefficient due to the number of patient caregivers required to perform the task or the requirement of cumbersome devices to pull and/or drag patients.
Health care costs and injury to health care personnel and patients may be reduced if patients could be easily moved since some bedridden patients must be moved frequently due to the risk ill effects prolonged bed stay, such as bed sores and spinal trauma. For example, patients with certain treatment regimens must be moved hourly, thus creating logistical problems and inefficiencies related to the utilization of patient caregiver staff. In addition, patients may be reluctant to ask for assistance, knowing that it may be cumbersome to the patient caregiver staff.
One drawback of prior art devices in the field of patient management is that they are generally not capable of positioning a patient in a bed without undue stress to the patient. Furthermore, such devices often require more than one patient caregiver to effectively facilitate the positioning of a patient. Such devices typically rely upon mechanisms that do not provide mechanical advantage or that require large areas to operate, and generally are directed to moving a patient above the bed mattress or laterally rather than longitudinally in relation to the bed. Prior art devices are also expensive, are not mobile, and are not easily attachable/retrofitable to current hospital beds.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,334,901 to Highdon, discloses a reinforced bed sheet with a pad so that a patient may be moved to his side but does not offer longitudinal mobility. U.S. Pat. No. 2,815,524 to Pruitt discloses a device wherein a long bed sheet is rolled laterally by a handle but again does not offer longitudinal mobility or a mechanism to provide mechanical advantage. U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,774 to Warren discloses a device using an adjustable post and winch with a harness to move a patient by pulling underneath the patient's armpits. U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,273 to Elze discloses an apparatus for moving a patient in a bed but requires special assembly in conjunction with special sheets and mattresses.
Thus, there is a long felt need for an effective, economically practical device and method for repositioning patients in a bed that provides longitudinal mobility and easy integration with current hospital beds.